TREATMENT BUT ONE STEP IN RECOVERY

24 Hours Followed Jesse Kozak Over Several Months, Both Through Drug
Treatment And On His Own In The Real World

Getting sober in a drug-treatment program is one thing.

Staying sober on the other side of the program is entirely different.

A recovering addict venturing back into a world full of demons and
temptations - a world that nearly destroyed them the first time - is
a daunting challenge.

"Can I really do this?" was the first question Jesse Kozak asked himself.

It's a question everyone graduating from the Last Door
abstinence-based, drug-treatment program faces.

Kozak moved out of the supportive, structured environment of the New
West treatment centre in May.

Could he stay clean?

Did he have the tools to cope?

Has his life really changed?

"I was a bit scared at first," he admits. "You're protected [at the
Last Door], if anything happens you run back to the house and get help."

Knowing what would happen if he slipped, coupled with the day-to-day
realities of independent life made for a hectic adjustment.

"Things were a little more clusterf-cked," grinned Kozak, whose
boyish looks belie his rough life experience.

Paying the bills and worrying about each meal wasn't something he was
used to in a home, where the chores were shared among a large group
and "everything was taken care of."

"It was definitely another step in my road to recovery," he says. "I
had to find a whole new balance to my life."

But amidst all the chaos, Kozak was discovering a lot about himself.

"It surprised me," he says. "I got into a routine down and everything
started flowing better and better."

The habits that weaned him from drugs, ones he learned at the Last
Door, had taken root.

"I didn't realize it at the time, but I was taking everything from
there and implementing it in my life," he says. "I was taking
responsibility and that voice in the back of my head was always there."

The little gangster-wannabe making all the wrong friends and fearing
for his life in Surrey years ago had morphed into a productive member
of society.

"I owe [Last Door] a lot," he says. "I love life."

And that's coming from a guy who used to sum up his life as "a ball of sh-t."